Rocky Hill Dedicates Memorial To Soldier Killed In Vietnam

September 22, 2013|By DAVID DRURY, Special to The Courant, The Hartford Courant

ROCKY HILL — His death in combat 45 years ago prevented Pfc. Richard P. Caputo from receiving a hero's welcome home from Vietnam.

But to surviving family members, fellow veterans, family friends and local officials who gathered Sunday morning on the Center Green for the dedication of a memorial to his memory, it felt like a long overdue homecoming.

"He's home. That's the way I figure it. He's back,'' said Carl Caputo, one of three surviving Caputo brothers, along with Henry and Carl, who unveiled the bronze plaque, embedded in a granite stone, before an estimated 200 onlookers.

Carl was only 14 when his older brother died Sept. 22, 1968. A 20-year-old draftee, serving with the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, Richard Caputo had been in South Vietnam only two months when North Vietnamese troops ambushed the armored personnel carrier he was riding in.

Caputo was one of 58,272 American troops who died in the nation's longest war. Of Connecticut's 612 service deaths, he was the only one from Rocky Hill.

Although Caputo's name appears on Panel 43W-Row 061 on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Carl Caputo said having a local memorial to his brother, just a quarter mile from where the family lived on Grimes Road, means a great deal. "Being in Washington, D.C., doesn't help here,'' said Caputo, who resides in Newington.

Richard Caputo married his childhood sweetheart, Ann Gesualdi, in March 1968 after completing basic training.

"It was a fitting tribute. I think Rich was here in spirit," said his widow, now Ann Wolanin. She and Richard's sister, Joyce Caputo Valeggia, placed a wreath on the memorial during the ceremony.

In 1968, at the war's height, hundreds of young Americans were dying weekly in the divisive conflict. Caputo grew up in large family in a small town, and his loss was felt keenly by those of his generation who grew up in town.

"I remember when he got killed,'' said Bonnie Vigneault Applebee, then 16. "I knew [brothers] Peter and Carl better. It was devastating."

She attended the ceremony with her older sister, Dixie, a 1963 Rocky Hill High School graduate who was visiting from North Carolina. Dixie read about the ceremony in the newspaper and insisted the sisters attend.

The sisters grew up on Oak Hill Road and exchanged greetings with their former next-door neighbor, Douglas Struthers. A Vietnam veteran, and 1963 Rocky Hill High grad, Struthers was stationed in the Central Highlands of Vietnam during his service as a squad leader with the 1st Cavalry Division, 1966-67.

"I remember [Richard] as a kid. I remember his smile,'' said Struthers, now 67.

Mayor Timothy Moriarty, a Rocky Hill native and longtime friend of members of the Caputo family, had suggested the memorial during Memorial Day observances on the Green this year. Moriarty reminded those in attendance Sunday that Caputo faced a choice that many young men confronted during the Vietnam War.

"Richard had a choice: go to war or go to Canada,'' Moriarty said. Caputo chose to go to war and died, like so many other young American soldiers in that war, who averaged 23 years and 11 months at the time of their deaths.